How can I tell if I have IIS Express or Full versi

Question

I have two machines: Windows 10 Pro, and Windows 10 Home. I have enabled IIS on both of them. From both machines, going to IIS -> File -> About shows this dialog:

One might assume that I'm dealing with the full version of IIS simply due to the lack of the word "Express".

Is there any simple way to confirm if a machine has full or express installed?

Answer 1

IIS Express is normally installed into your 32-bit Program Files folder. So, to see if it's there you can try:

C:\>cd "\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express"
C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express>iisexpress /?  

Full IIS is normally installed as a service called "World Wide Web Publishing Service" or "w3svc" for short. So, to see if it's there you can try:

C:\>net start w3svc

Answer 2

If you have IIS manager installed, you have full IIS.

IIS Express is part of Visual Studio and appears in the Windows system tray when you run a web application/web site from within Visual Studio.

Answer 3

You opened IIS Manager to see such a dialog and IIS Manager is only part of full IIS, while IIS is part of Windows.

If you want to check that in code, then there are other ways such as checking Windows CBS data, or reading registry key.

IIS Express is completely another software, which is an MSI package to be installed either with Visual Studio or individually. To test its installation, you either check the Programs dialogue as the comment said, or query MSI data or registry keys.